Trump Defends Sharing Information on ISIS Threat With Russia -
By PETER BAKER and JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVISMAY 16, 2017
WASHINGTON — President Trump on Tuesday defended his decision to share sensitive information about an Islamic State threat with Russian
officials as the White House once again struggled to reconcile seemingly conflicting accounts of the president’s actions.
“As president,” Mr. Trump wrote, “I wanted to share with Russia (at an openly scheduled W. H.
meeting) which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining to terrorism and airline flight safety.
“What the president discussed with the foreign minister was wholly appropriate to
that conversation and is consistent with the routine sharing of information between the president and any leaders with whom he’s engaged,” General McMaster said.
Asked about the conversation by reporters during a later appearance with Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the president of Turkey, Mr. Trump again did not deny providing the information,
but he instead cast it as an attempt to collaborate with Russia in the war against the Islamic State.
Intelligence officials worried that Mr. Trump, in his meeting with Sergey V. Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister,
and Sergey I. Kislyak, the Russian ambassador, provided enough details to effectively expose the source of the information and the manner in which it had been collected.
